STAI, Spielberger State Anxiety Inventory.
Discussion
Suppression, or at least reduction, of alcohol drinking is 1 of the major goals in the treatment of patients affected by schizophrenia and alcohol dependence. 2 However, research to evaluate effective pharmacotherapies for patients diagnosed with AUDs and psychiatric comorbidity is still in its infancy. To our knowledge, this is the first case of a schizophrenic alcohol-dependent patient treated with baclofen in an attempt to decrease his alcohol consumption. Consistent with previous reports, 11–13 treatment with baclofen did not worsen schizophrenic symptoms in our patient, as indicated by the scores of BPRS and CGI. Vice versa, treatment with baclofen resulted in a virtually complete suppression of alcohol drinking, without occurrence of any relevant side effects. This observation is in agreement with the results of 2 recent studies which demonstrated that treatment with baclofen induced a significant reduction in alcohol intake and craving for alcohol. 4,5 Of interest, another GABAergic medication has recently been suggested to be effective in alcohol-dependent schizophrenic patients. A recent case report indeed described how the GABAergic antiepileptic drug, topiramate, suppressed alcohol intake in a patient affected by alcohol dependence and schizophrenia. 17 In conclusion, the present observation suggests that baclofen may be evaluated in future, properly designed studies as a novel pharmacotherapy for patients affected by alcohol dependence and schizophrenia.
Roberta Agabio, MD*†
Priamo Marras, MD†
Giovanni Addolorato, MD‡
Bernardo Carpiniello, MD†
Gian Luigi Gessa, MD*
*Bernard B. Brodie Department of Neuroscience
and †Division of Psychiatry
Department of Public Health
University of Cagliari
Cagliari, Italy
‡Institute of Internal Medicine
Catholic University
Rome, Italy
[email protected] References
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